Fallen

I pulled into the lot at the beach and parked my car. Luckily enough for me, since it was after 5pm I didn’t have to pay to park, which would’ve just made me even more late than I already was. Work was a little bit of a disaster today; a co-worker called out so we were short staffed. I was trying to get everyone fed and settled for the night without a late keeper, so I ended up leaving work about twenty minutes later than anticipated. I didn’t have time to shower or put on any make-up, but I did change my clothes, and doused myself in body spray so I would smell more like a woman and less like tiger urine.

I made my way down the stairs that led to the beach, my eyes scanning over the sand underneath of my sunglasses, looking for Matt and the boys. They were a ways out to my right, so it would take me a few minutes to get to them. It looked like they were having fun; the boys were digging something in the sand as Matt sat next to them, a smile on his face. A tinge of nervousness washed over me and I tried to keep my composure, telling myself that this was just us spending time with the boys. I didn’t have to look nice for him, we weren’t interested in one another in that way. Just my son’s, best friend’s dad.

“Hey!” I exclaimed when I got a few feet away, “I am so sorry that I am way late. Things were hectic and I had a lot of loose ends to tie up at the end of the day.”

“Momma!” Carson screamed and ran over to me, squeezing my legs in his arms. All of the sand from his body was now on my bare legs. “Cash and me made a sand castle and then the water took it away.”

“Very nice, bud,” I smiled and ruffled his hair. “What are you doing now?”

“Looking for dinosaurs,” Carson responded and ran back over to Cash, continuing their archeologic process.

I took a seat across from Matt; sitting Indian-style and watching the boys dig for their dinosaurs. Cash looked up and said hi to me with a smile, but quickly went back to what he was doing. I pulled my hair out of the bun it was in, and re-adjusted it, trying to get more of the hair that always fell out in the back up. Matt was wearing shorts and a black t-shirt, a backwards hat on his head and sunglasses on his face. I could feel him looking at me, a smile on his face.

“Thank you so much for picking Carson up. I sincerely appreciate it,” I smiled at him. “I hope he hasn’t been too much of a pain.”

Matt shook his head and laughed, “Not a problem at all. He’s a good kid; you worry about him too much. Lighten up.”

I rolled my eyes behind my sunglasses, “I have my reasons.”

His smile dropped a bit, “Long day?”

“Ever-so-slightly,” I laughed, brightening up the conversation. “I won’t bore you with all of the husbandry talk, but things were a little crazy. Understaffed and no volunteers on Wednesdays means I am pretty much on my feet all day and stuck in the cat building. I’m honestly surprised I didn’t offend everyone with the smell of tiger urine in my hair.”

“In your hair?” Matt laughed, “How the hell do you get that in your hair?”

“Our male is an asshole. If he’s in the building and the girls are on the yard, and you’re not paying attention to him, he will spray you with urine until you do. I didn’t have time to train him today so I just gave him all of his food at a feeding, and well, he didn’t like that and let me know that he didn’t like that.” I shook my head, laughing to myself, picturing Suki doing that to me earlier in the day, “Never a dull moment.”

The look on his face was priceless as he opened his mouth to talk, “And I thought I’ve dealt with some crazy stuff on the road. I can honestly say I’ve never been peed on. I’ll make a mental note to never ask you to take me to see the tigers.”

“What? You don’t want urine in your hair?” I teased. “My bears bears make spitballs if you give them any paper product, and they’ll spit them at you. The leopards try to stalk you and surprise you when you walk past their enclosures. The lions… well, they’re always mating. The hyenas are my favorite, but the girls constantly compare the sizes of their pseudopenises and it weirds most people out.”

“Their what? Say that word again,” Matt took off his sunglasses and furrowed his brows, “Pseudopenis?”

I nodded, “I’m not explaining with three-year-old ears nearby. The last thing I need Carson blabbing about in public is a hyenas enlarged clitoris.”

Matt broke into absolute laughter, causing both little boys to turn and look in our direction. They didn’t know what was funny, so they went back to what they were doing. It took Matt about a minute to contain himself, a small smirk on his dimpled face.

“So, me and you, anatomy lesson one night when we don’t have the kids?” He winked with a smirk.

My cheeks instantly heated up and I wanted to hide my face. I had a feeling he said it just to make a joke, and make me slightly uncomfortable. It worked, but I wasn’t uncomfortable because it was sexual, I was uncomfortable because it caused a warm feeling down low.

The sun started to set and we decided that it was time that we got ice cream and left the beach. The boys were good about packing up their stuff, and even carrying their own belongings. Carson always felt important when he had his book bag on, and since Cash was his best friend, Cash now wanted to wear his book bag all the time, too.

“What do you want?” I asked Carson while balancing him on my hip. “And don’t say chocolate because you never finish it.”

Carson furrowed his brows and looked at the choices, pointing at mint chocolate chip. “That one. I want green. With a cone.”

“In a cup,” I looked at the girl over the counter, then at my son. I knew if he had the cone, he’d drop it, and then cry for an hour about how his ice cream was gone. He didn’t need a cone tonight, even if he had a pout on his face that he wasn’t getting his way.

She handed me the ice cream and I paid for it, then carried it over to the table where Matt and Cash were sitting. Carson jumped out of my arms and sat across from Cash, immediately digging into the ice cream in his cup. He better sleep good tonight and not have a sugar high, or else I might lose my mind.

My stomach grumbled and Carson looked over at me, “Momma hungry?”

I nodded with a sigh, “Momma was too busy to eat at work.”

“You need dinner,” Carson stated with a concerned look, but ultimately turned back to his ice cream.

“You should’ve gotten something to eat,” Matt eyed me from across the table.

“I’ll eat when I get home and put him to bed,” I responded, not making eye contact with him.

I felt his eyes trying to reach mine so I looked up at him, he smiled, “I’m just going to take a wild guess. You’re going to eat something that you don’t want him to eat, so you’re just going to starve yourself until he’s asleep.”

I let out a quiet laugh and looked to Carson quickly. He was engulfed in three-year-old conversations with Cash, so I was in the clear, “Car is a mac-and-cheese fiend, and I tell him that we’re always out of it so that he eats other things that are healthier. I have to hide it in a top cabinet and eat it when he’s not around.”

“I think you just earned mother of the year,” Matt chuckled and sipped his Coke. “I hadn’t realized you had freckles. You look really good without make-up.”

I blinked a few times, trying to tame myself from blushing again and spoke quietly, “Thank you.”

“You’re very welcome,” he responded with a smile, still staring at me when I looked down to the table.

Once the boys finished their ice cream, it was time to get them both to bed. It was also time for me to be able to eat something, drink a beer and take a shower. Tomorrow was my day off since I would be working this upcoming weekend, and I had a million things to get done. Grocery shopping, by myself, cleaning the house, doing laundry. Stuff that I never had time to really get done, or get done efficiently, with Carson around. Carson and Cash engulfed each other in a hug, saying goodbye when we got to the cars.

I had noticed that I had parked next to Matt’s truck when we walked over. I didn’t realize earlier when I had gotten to the beach. I put Carson in his car seat then turned to Matt who was closing the back door where he just put Cash in.

He turned and looked at me with a smile, “This was nice. I don’t get much time to relax and unwind between the boys and the band.”

I nodded, “Yeah, I feel you on that one. We’ll have to figure out something for next week.”

“Do you work this weekend? Want to do something?” Matt asked quickly, catching me off guard.

I looked up at him, “I do, actually.”

He nodded and licked over his bottom lip, “I’m having a few friends over Sunday with their kids for a cook out. You could drop Carson off on your way to work that morning, and come over when you get off?”

A wave of nervousness washed over me again, but I brushed it off. Friends with kids. Cash is Carson’s best friend. Matt’s just being nice. “That would be nice,” I smiled. “I have to make sure my mom didn’t have plans with him for Sunday, though.”

“Of course,” Matt smiled. “Well, get home and go eat your mac-and-cheese. I like getting to know you, but I’d hate to be the reason you starve for another hour."

Notes

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